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THE FIRST REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER
OF HEALTH.
The parish of St. Mary, Rotherhithe, extending over an area of
eight hundred and eighty-six statute acres, the greater part of which
are considerably below Trinity high-water mark, possesses some
advantages of which many of the surrounding parishes are deprived.
The population not being so numerous in proportion to the extent
of its surface, the dwellings of the inhabitants are not so crowded
together as in the neighbouring districts of Bermondsey and St.
John's, large open spaces existing which allow free circulation of
the atmosphere and the dilution of any miasms that may be exhaled
from the various ditches and uncovered sewers by which it is
intersected. Some of the above-mentioned open spaces are Canals
or Docks; others are under culture, as meadows, orchards or gardens,
whose active vegetation tends to purify the air and exercise a
healthy influence upon the place. Rotherhithe, however, acquired,
during the epidemic of cholera, which prevailed in 1849, a most unenviable
notoriety; the mortality, at that period, having been
greater, in ratio of the population, than that of any other metropolitan
parish. But if we analyze the facts, and seek the causes of
them, they may be easily explained. The lower, or eastern part of
Rotherhithe (which furnished the largest number of deaths) was at
that period almost without drainage, without sewage, and without
proper water supply. The inhabitants used the water of the
Thames without even filtering it, dipping it from the stream or from
tidal wells, generally in a filthy condition. Some favoured few used
water from springs, of which there are three or four in the district.
The attention of the authorities having been called, by the fearful
ravages of the epidemic, to this state of things, a sewer was
constructed, and an abundant supply of excellent water was obtained
from the Kent Waterworks. The consequences may be easilv
foretold. When the cholera again appeared in 1854, the eastern
districts, if I may so express myself, was prepared to receive it.
Very few cases occurred, and no part of the metropolis south of the
Thames enjoyed a greater immunity from the complaint than the
eastern part of Rotherhithe, while the newly-built streets on the
Deptford Lower Road, erected on undrained garden ground, suffered
severely from the disease.